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Mall location picked for Med/Con

Submitted by briancummins on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 01:17.

The following (see below) is a PD report of the announcement made at the end of the day today.

Although many of us have our doubts as to the actual benefit or success a Med Mart/Convention Center investment will have, the fact that the damn location decision has been made is a relief...particularly given the fact the Mall site prevailed.

Let's move on as we keep an eye on the broken public process this has experienced to-date and work to demand and affect improvement in the processes as well as begin to focus on other important economic and workforce development issues that need broad community and regional support.

Those of us who worked on the Put-It-On-The-Ballot effort are still awaiting the actual County/MMPI development agreement (hopefully quickly forthcoming) and specifics of the plans/costs.

The City’s Administration and our Council must be prudent in our role in the project, being stewards of this important asset. If the Med/Con is going forward, I am happy that we'll see our existing facility rehabilitated (the Public Auditorium and all of its amenities) – see the DH Ellison Co.’s web site dedicated to the Group Plan and check out the photos of some of the remarkable features of the spaces inside the Public Auditorium. (one of my personal favorites is the Little Theater which is situated adjacent to and west of the Music Hall):

Sometimes the ongoing maggot rot of Cleveland randomly stumbles upon a useful decision. I still have a funny feeling this will never happen, though. I can’t imagine the public accountability getting any better, given how screwed up this process has been to date. And I have a funny feeling we’ll all end up getting screwed.

But if Public Hall gets returned to the gem that it should be, I’ll be thrilled.

I will say that despite our on-going miscommunication, Councilman Brian Cummins deserves credit for working behind the scenes to preserve local history.

The on-going fraud/theft of the medical mart circus is too much for the every day resident to worry about given day-to-day realities, but, this decision to recognize and remake the Covention Center is a small win for the little every-day guy/gal. It is one day less a complete sell-out to special interests.

I keep hearing references to the medical mart including an adjacent Auditoiurm. If they are planning on moving the "Public Auditorium" over to the Medical Mart column. Does that mean they are considering giving it up to MNPI for twenty years?

Further when do they start mentioning upkeep costs and maintainance considerations. I would hate to see a "Gateway type agreement" that just gives everything away like they did with the baseball stadium and basketball arena. I can hardly wait to see what iced layer cake they come up in costs and expenses in charting their revenue predictions.

Public Auditorium has a long and distinguished past, and it is a beautiful building as Ellison's photos or a trip to the building attest. But you're right, Brian, that this has been a public process that defines Cleveland's ineptness at inclusion. The nerve of our county commissioners calling the GCP a citizen committee!

"Development agreement"? I'm still waiting for the business plan. Did I miss that? Please post that link. While county taxpayers continue to cough up the bucks, so far, no one has hinted at what the ROI will be for this "bet". How bout you lay it out here for us? Tell us why you have supported this billion dollar party center. When I asked Fred Nance, he said it would, as convention center's typically do, lose money. Why would we at a time of a global economic crisis build a party center for doctors? Excuse me, for hospital purchasing officers. Maybe you can explain how this will work. We are not too dumb to get it. We can read charts and graphs, too. I'm not down with the "father knows best" plan.

Here's a suggestion - let's turn our attention to reinvigorating the talks on PILOTS (payments in lieu of taxes) with CCF and UH. Don't the students in your ward need better schools? Now that the medical industry has got their cake (and they'll be eatin' it too), could they graciously return the favor and offer to pick up the tab for dinner? CCF and UH have got the regional thing down - their locations extend beyond the county's borders even to headwater streams in Twinsburg; they even extend to Abu Dhabi...

or the UH locations - all tax free, right? Oh, right and we're gonna build them a driveway, too for their main campuses? Maybe we'll see a name change in the future...To undo more decades of divisiveness, city changes name to reflect new image, visit Positively Medland on the shores of Lake Erie and the banks of the once crooked Cuyahoga River

Could the new transparent Medland support this vision?

Ivor Johns, Gardens

one of the lunettes in Public Auditorium - photo by Jeff Buster

Oh, yes and let's be sure we're on the same page regarding Public Auditorium - it has been on the National Register since 1937. "The Cleveland Public Auditorium was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 10, 1937, and was designated as a Cleveland Landmark on Oct. 16, 1937."

Will historic tax credits be in play? Please don't wreck Public Auditorium!

Since you reference the lovely tour at the Ellison site, I want to direct viewer's attention to this quote as well: "What do we lose in this deal? The money that we are donating to these corporations could be used to fix some of the problems that actually keep Cleveland from moving ahead or it could be used to foster small businesses, the real life-blood of our economy. Schools and safety forces – our two biggest problems – will not benefit from this and in fact will be the first to lose. In the meantime the foreclosure crisis is rolling in like a freight train, further devaluing property and costing the city and the county millions in rising homelessness, crime and upkeep of abandoned buildings and land that the banks own but will not maintain or secure. Sinking all our borrowing capacity into the medical mart scheme will not address these problems."

Let's move forward transparently addressing these problems now that a site has been chosen. I welcome your suggestions Brian.